1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 21

      40 years ago today, Disney released the film Freaky Friday in theatres. That is, unless you reference Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia but they seem to have gotten this wrong as almost every other website I've been to agrees that January 21, 1977 was the official release date of this classic film. I was starting to lose faith in Wikipedia when I came across a website called This Day in Disney History.
   

Original lobby card for the film.

      According to that website, Freaky Friday had been playing in select cities since mid-December of the previous year. This was the only website I came across that gave such an explanation. If you go to Amazon, they list this film as a 1977 picture. As I mentioned earlier, Wikipedia says it's from '76. Well, I guess that's fitting since Freaky Friday is a movie about things not being as they seem.

     For those of you not familiar with the movie (I'm talking about the original film starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris), the premise is simple. Mom and daughter have a falling out on Friday the 13th and wish that the other could see life from their perspective. For the next 24-hours the pair switch bodies, have some funny adventures, and then switch back with a new view of the other's way of life. It also has a creepy side when the dad, played by John Astin wants to get his personal freak on with his wife, only for it to be in reality his daughter in his bride's body. 

The evolution of Freaky Friday 1977-2003.

    How did this movie make it past the censors?! Even better, what the hell was Disney thinking? Obviously, this hasn't been a problem for the House of Mouse as they've remade this film not once but twice! And each subsequent version has the eerie incest scene added.

     Along with the 1995 and 2003 remakes, this body-swapping thing is an idea has been done to death ever since Freaky Friday's release. Films such as Kirk Cameron's Like Father, Like son, The Hot Chick with Rob Schneider, and Vice Versa with Judge Reinhold have offered their on take of having 2 people switch bodies. Even TV isn't immune to this idea, usually in cartoons or sci-fi/ fantasy shows. 

Before becoming a major motion picture,
Freaky Friday was a kids book published in 1973.

    But that's what happens in Hollywood, you make a hit and then all the other studios rush to cash in with their own versions, usually with disastrous results.

     It cost $5 million to make Freaky Friday. Over time it would make 5 times that in ticket sales. So the film was a major hot. Whether the film should be considered a hit in 1976 or 1977 is a matter of debate. But for this Madman, I will consider it a part on my favorite year.